Your Experience at a Fest

Just wondering people's experiences at festivals.

What fests have you been to with your film?
How was it?
Ups?
Downs?
Expenses?

Just any particular festivals that were worth it or not worth it.

The small fests have usually tended to treat us really good, like family, cause they're smaller.

And the larger fests (pretty much just one, Sedona, which is still kinda small but about 10,000 attendees I think) treat you good but it wasn't as personal, but they were still good to everybody.

Well, what's been our experiences.
Any fests any of us should avoid? submit to?
 
I had a film in the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival and I attended. I was in the student portion which was only like a week, the whole festival runs for like a month, it's very long. It's huge, when I went they made everyone, even filmmakers, buy passes. There was a big opening night gala that marked the end of the student competition and the beginning of the rest of the festival. There were stars every where, (well for being in Florida anyway) I met lots of people and I had fun time. It is one of those large impersonal type festivals, but a really good opportunity to network.

I wasn't acepted by and didn't go to the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, but I did get a lot of other film festivals contacting me about my film. So even though they didn't want me, I was very happy that they passed the word on about my movie. It was definately worth submitting.

I've been to a hand full of smaller festivals, but I usually only go to the ones that are near by. For me smaller festivals are great ego boosts and I tend to get more awards and nominations, but all the prestige is at the big name festivals. Just getting accepted to a big film festival is something to brag about.
 
The Square Lake Solstice Festival in Minnesota was great for my film. I mean, the films are all shown outside, and the location is amazing. The filmmakers weren't paid, but since the other submission were from major players around town, I felt like the name recognition was worth it.
www.solsticefestival.org
This year they're having live bands perform film scores. There's contact info on the site.
 
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